[Bonus] Hyrox Las Vegas 2026 Race Recap

This bonus episode is my race recap for the Hyrox Las Vegas 2026 race in the Women’s Open Doubles division.

Main topics covered:

• Overall goals and strategy
• What went well
• Station-by-station recap
• Overall takeaways
• Areas for improvement

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the first bonus episode. So these bonus episodes will be race or competition recaps. They obviously don't uh happen super often, but we'll mainly be going over my experience and what I took away from the race or competition so that you can apply my lessons learned if you're thinking about doing the same race or competition. So about a month ago, which seems like a really long time ago, but it was only like four weeks ago in February, I did my first Hyrux race in Las Vegas. My friend Deoni and I uh did the women's open doubles division, and the race ended up going a lot better than we expected, which was awesome. So um going into the race and going into any race or competition, I usually um have some goals. So my goals for this race was to be able to run all the laps, so not walk during the run portions and finish under an hour and 30 minutes, and then lastly have fun. So that's always gonna be my goal in any race or competition. Um, luckily we accomplished all three of the goals. Um, we ended up finishing the race in an hour and 26 minutes, and I was able to run all of the laps, so that was great, and we had fun. Um, and our plan going into the race, um, so we had done a crossfit um a CrossFit competition before, so we kind of knew how to communicate with each other and kind of knew how um each one of us worked. Um so again, being from a CrossFit background, like we had a rough plan for how to split up the stations, but we were basically like our plan was to just kind of go by feel, like for like the machine stations, we definitely had like a okay, we're gonna do you know this amount of distance or whatever. So we we actually split those up more rigidly, but then the other stations were like, okay, well, we'll try to go as far as we can, and then um, and then switch. So I and that's b basically like the same thing during uh CrossFit competitions, like you kind of have a loose plan, but then like during the workout, you never know how you're gonna feel, so you kind of just adapt as you go along. Um, so that was our plan, but and the overarching plan um because Zioni is a stronger runner from me, uh stronger runner than me. So um, like I mentioned or alluded to, we both um we met each other at our previous CrossFit gym, and um since then, like I still do CrossFit, um, she's um gone more into running, and so she's definitely a stronger runner than me. And so our plan overall was for me to start the station. So when we came in from the run, I would start the station and she would finish the station so that I had a little bit of rest before um going on the next run. And so, like I mentioned, for things that went well, is that I was able to run all eight laps, so I didn't have to walk on any of the running portions. Um, there were definitely times where I was like, I kind of want to walk. Um, but I was able to push through. Um, and I had no pain during the run. So I think leading up to the race, like I had some like a little, like not necessarily pain, but like a little bit of soreness. Like I was like, oh, you know, my knee is kind of doing a weird thing, my calf or whatever, my Achilles. Um, but going into the race, um, I felt pretty healthy and yeah, my my I felt really good during the run, so that was great. And um Dione's calves did start cramping towards the end. Um, I didn't necessarily start cramping during the running, but my quad and calf did start cramping during one of the stations, which I'll um kind of talk about uh in a little bit. Um, but our target run pace was to stay under seven minutes a kilometer, which is about an 11-minute mile pace. Um we were we were hoping to be at about six and a half kilometers or faster. Um, but again, we were a little bit nervous. Like I was more nervous about just running in general. Dione was more nervous about um being tired during the runs because she doesn't really do as much compromise running anymore, aka like running after you've done a whole bunch of stations or a whole bunch of work. Um and luckily we were about like most of our laps were about six and a half uh minutes a kilometer, which is about ten and a half uh a ten and a half minute mile pace. Um so that was good, or that went better than expected, and then I think it was just the last kilometer that we slowed down to around seven minutes a kilometer. Um I know a lot of people say that one is longer, but I don't know. I couldn't make I didn't understand how that one was longer, but we were definitely tired. Um so yeah, happy with how the run went. And other things that went well besides the run um is that we were able to have a little, or at least I had a little bit of an ego boost um during the stations because we would finish them faster than the girls next to us. So I mean that's always an ego boost. Okay, so I'm just gonna go station by station on kind of what went well um and what I wish we would have done differently um potentially. So first station is a skierg. Um so this one, everyone's gonna be it's the first station, so everyone's pretty much still gonna be together from the run. Um and our plan here was to switch every 30 seconds. So initially we our original plan was to break it up to like like maybe 200 and then 150, 150 each. So like our first um like our first set would be 200 meters each and then 150, 150. That seems like a lot. Like I thought it was like 200, 100, whatever. Anyway, so that was our original plan. We did a half sim like the week before the race, and the person, the coach, uh recommended like switching every 30 seconds, and we felt that that felt good because it's like we were able to keep going without like necessarily like right before we would start to get tired, the 30 seconds would you know elapse, and then so we'd switch. So that's what we did for the race. Um I mean it felt good, and we still finished before the ladies next to us, but um I feel like we switched a lot more, like we did a lot more transitions, and so and our transitions were fast, um, I feel like, but I don't know. I feel like we should have tested both out for like the whole thing, so for the whole thousand meters and not just the half, the 500 meters, like we did during the the half sim, um, just to see which one was actually faster. Um, but I don't know, maybe this maybe this way was better because we weren't winded after. But yeah, ski arc was good. Um next was the sled push. So um for this one, I again I felt good, so I'm I was like, I'm strong. So I made the mistake of pushing doing like the entire length of the way. Um instead of most people's or most of the other teams were only doing like half, so they would push halfway and then switch, and then the other person would push the rest of the way. Um and I think it was just like I don't know, the adrenaline or like I just wanted to beat the girls next to us. I don't know, but definitely like my legs didn't blow up, but like they definitely got like really tired and I was like, oops. So um, so yeah, I think I also overestimated myself because during training, like we were afraid of like you know, we hear about the the carpet and the the like notorious carpet, so we trained with heavier sleds, so that's why and during the warm-up, I was like, this sled feels light. So I I don't know, I just overestimated myself, and either way, um we did okay with this one with this station, and next time now I know that even if I feel good, like only go halfway and then have Diony push the sled the rest of the way and like do that for the whole the whole station. Um okay, next was the sled pole. This one was um, it wasn't our worst station, um, surprisingly to me, but I feel like I did my biggest mistake here. Um so firstly, um I had seen this high rocks technique video for sled polls, and I think a lot of them are a lot of the technique videos for at least on social media for high rocks slide pulling, uh pulling the sled on high in high rocks, like there's like, oh, you know, don't use your arms too much and like use your legs or whatever. Um versus my intuitive technique the first time I did sled polls um without like before watching that video. So the first time doing a a sled pole like um with with all the within all the parameters of high rock, so like you have to stand in the box or whatever. Um I did more of like a hip pop. So that stayed that was the same. So you do a hip hop to kind of get the sled going, but then I kind of uh I didn't necessarily walk, like I would do the hip hop, pull the sled, and then like pull the slack with my arms. So I was still using some arms, um, but I was mostly relying on like the hip pop, um, like similar to like Olympic lifts, that's what I'm talking about with with hip hop. Um, I guess it would be easier to show you, but obviously this is audio only. Um and so once I don't know why. Once I saw that video, I was like, oh save my arms or whatever, but like you know, if you think about it, we don't really use arms in high rocks. I mean we do, but like I don't know, most of it is legs to me. To me, most of it is legs. Um, there's nothing like super duper arm heavy except for like the sled pole, I guess. Um and so I don't know, I practiced this technique like so much. I don't know why I was kept trying to make it work. Um, because I had seen a video, it was Matt Frazier's video on like the ski erg technique, like cheek to cheek, going from like your face to your butt cheeks, um like short poles but faster cadence. Um and like I tried it once and I was like, nah, this isn't gonna work. So so I just did my normal technique on the ski erg. I don't know why I didn't do that on the sled pole. Like, I I don't know, I was just so like I got so hung up on like oh use my legs, don't use your arms. And so yeah, it just it never I don't know, I never got comfortable with that new technique. I still did it on the race day, and like I was slow, and then it felt awkward, and I uh actually also like tripped on the rope because it so the tech the high rox technique, the video that I had watched, it's like okay, yeah, you still do the hip hop, you stand up, but you don't use your arms, you like walk the sled back, and because of that, I like tripped on the rope and actually fell. Um obviously I was okay, but yeah, I that shouldn't be my and that should have been my indication to like switch up my technique during the race, but no, I the rest of the ra I still try to like use this technique because I don't know. Like looking back on it, I'm just obviously I'm like mad about myself, uh mad at myself about it, but but yeah, um so that was number one, and then number two is we got confused about how many lengths we had completed. So we thought we were done, but then we're like, are we done? And then because we were all on like this one side, um, I think we got confused because it was like that you know the sled starts on one side and you're on the other side because you're pulling the sled to you, and then I don't know, like we counted weird and like you know, we're working out, so like our you know brain faculties aren't necessarily all there. So I'm like, oh like we did all four, and then we're like, wait, did we? And so we stood there for like a long time, like probably a few seconds, but then I realized the girls next to us were like on the other side, and they were were running um like out of the station on the other side. We're like, oh no, we still have one more to do. So like yeah, we had to like very quickly go back to our lane and like finish the last one. So we didn't get a penalty, I think, because we didn't like actually leave, but yeah, that definitely took uh a few more seconds. So I feel like we could have shaved at least a minute. Um one, if we weren't confused, because that took a while, and then two, like I feel like it would have been it just would have been a lot faster if I just stuck to my nor my like my intuitive technique. So that was the sled pole. Next were the burpee ra jumps. So um I was a little bit worried about this one too because like I do not like burpees, but also like during training, um sometimes my c-section scar would bother me. Um it was interesting, it wasn't all the time, but definitely I think um the running plus the burpees and the broad jump portion, like it's like a lot of core, so it would kind of pull on my C-section sometimes, especially if I was tired. Um But this station ended up going pretty well for us. Um, I think we were ranked pretty high, or you know, compared to all the our rankings for all the other stations, like this one was pretty good. Um, I think it's because we established a pretty good rhythm. Um, maybe also because it was like more cardio versus like the sleds, I don't know. But um, so yeah, it went pretty good. But we did choose the wrong lane because when we got to the station, the person was like, Oh, like choose an open lane, and like all of them kind of had a person in them, but then like the very first lane, um yeah, we should have gone to like the last lanes, the ones more on the um the right. But the first one I was like, Oh, they're like far enough away, like we'll do this one. But we were so fat, like we were we went faster than we thought, and so we were so fast, we like caught up to them, and then so one of the judges were like, Oh, can we pass them? They're like, Yeah, but then the person next to us was like just like they weren't even with us, but they were just close enough that like it would have been super awkward to like pass. But in the end, in the end, Dioni passed for us because we're like uh and um yeah, we did kind of like get in the way in their way for like a second, or like they had a pause because um because yeah, when Dioni did her burpee, like the person like couldn't go forward, so it was like oops, sorry, but yeah, we so yeah, we we chose the wrong lane, but we still did pretty good um because we had we we both had like a pretty good rhythm for the burpee. Um, so yeah, we finished this station pretty quickly, and so next was the road. This was our best station. Um, I think we were ranked in the 100s out of like I don't know how many over a thousand um um pairs, but um for this one our goal or uh um we broke it up with um where Doni did 250 meters and then I did the middle part so 500 meters and then she did 250 again. Um partly because we had saw this is gonna I feel like this is like a recurring thing. We saw a video like maybe the the week of the race that um that recommended not breaking up the road too much, not like the ski erg. Um I think partially because like getting in and out of the foot straps is it takes a lot longer than like a ski erg, you just let go of the the handles and then the next person grabs them. Um so there's a little bit more to the transitions for the row. And then um Dionys doesn't like running, doesn't like rowing, so she's like, I'm gonna break it up more. So um, yeah, this this one like I'm pretty proficient at rowing. I feel like I should be better um because I'm 5'9, so I'm I'm fairly tall for a woman, but I feel like I should do better on rowing than I am or have more power in my legs, but but either way, like I did pretty well on the 500. And it was funny because during my section um or during my set, like I was starting to get kind of tired, but then like I kind of like looked on the monitor for the girls next to me, and I was going way f like my pace was way faster than theirs. So I was like, okay, I can slow down a little bit and like rest. Um, so yeah, I was able to slow down a little bit to rest. Um, so that's how that's how fast I was we were going. So yeah, this one did really good. Um, next one was the farmer's carry. So this is like you know, back half of the race, starting to get pretty tired. Um, and yeah, my legs were starting to get tired. So again, I didn't cramp during the actual run portion, but once we got to the kettlebells, like I picked up the kettlebell and I was like, oh no, like my legs. So um I don't remember. I think I still started the station because there were a couple stations where um, well, besides the row that Dioni ended up starting at, and because I was like, I needed to recover a little bit more from the run, but I'm pretty sure I started this one. I don't remember, but but anyway, like so I was like, Well, all the girls around me are running still with the kettlebells, so like walking to the station or to this, like from picking up your kettlebell to the start of the station, I was like, Okay, like my calf doesn't like this, so I tried to run, but then my quad was like, No, I don't like this either. And so I was like walk running, like trying to run, and then trying to walk fast, and then it just was not working too well. Um, and then so yeah, I would have to switch, and so I feel like Dione did more of the work here. I have no idea um if that was actually true, but um but she was able to run with the caterpillars. I was just like struggling the whole time with the farmer's carry, but um I think the farmer's carry was still okay, like it wasn't the I thought this one would be the worst well, this one or the sled pole. I thought one of these two would be the worst. But the actual worst one for us was the sandbag lunges, which was surprising to me, because I don't know. I thought this was gonna be one of our stronger stations. Um, I'm usually really good with lunges. Um I don't know, I guess partially because I have longer legs, so again I can like step farther. But then um even during training, like any weight felt like the weight that we used for the race felt just super like almost like nothing, felt super easy. Um and then during one of I think during the half sim, we had even like trained with like a heavier weight, because that's all the gym had. Um I think it was like double the weight, and that felt pretty easy to me too. Obviously, my legs were a little were tired by by now, so the these lunges felt a little bit more difficult than than usual, but I still feel like we were going fast uh or relatively quick quickly. Um but we ended up being ranked the lowest out of all of the other stations, so like our ranking for this one was like a thousand something. Um, and the next lowest ranking was like 700 in the 700s, and that was the the sled pull and the sled push. So so yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it was just like we were going slower than we thought we were, or if we just took too long for the transitions. Um, but yeah, I feel like this one um we'll just need to improve our efficiency with the sandbag lunges. Um, and then the last station were wall balls, so Diony and I are both CrossFitters or former CrossFitters, so um this was a pretty comfortable station for us. Um I like uh I guess I won't say I like wall balls, but I tolerate them, I guess, more than Deoney does. Um again, I'm taller, so they're a little bit easier for me, but um, yeah, we both finished the uh we finished this one in like four minutes. Um and we didn't so again we didn't like we were faster than a lot of the other girls around us again. Um yeah, but I so I also thought we would rank higher for this one, but I mean we ranked pretty high, like about 300 in the 300s, I think. But I think it would have been faster. Um we we learned after the fact that we could have just passed the ball to each other instead of each time letting it drop. Because we thought we had to I think that was the old rule. Um so So next, I think it would obviously be faster if if we want like for the transitions, we catch the ball and then pass it to our partner. Um, and then I feel like I could have done bigger sets, but we basically split it up into sets of like 20 and 15. I think like the first set was like 20, and then after that was like around 15 or so. Um, I feel like with because I, you know, we're getting natural rest because we're switching. So I feel like I could have kept up with 20s, but you know, sometimes when you're when you're tired, like you're like, once you have in your head is because it it went through my head, it's like maybe I should do 20, but then like I had already like set the expectation in my head, like, okay, now I'm gonna do 15 for the rest of the station. Like that stuck in my head, so then my body, like, once I got to the 15 rep mark, I was like, nah, I'm gonna pass it. So um, but yeah, wall balls went well, like nothing really big to report here, but so and then that was the end of the race. So yeah, we did so overall went pretty well. Um there were just like a couple things here and there that were like, oh, that could have gone better, but um overall pretty happy with um with our time. So our time our time was a minute or sorry, not a minute, an hour and 26 minutes. Um I feel like um with if we hadn't had the sled pole fiasco, maybe we would have gotten like 125. Um but a big thing to so looking at our breakdown, there was like um a cool website that kind of broke down all your times and stuff, and we spent most of the time running, which we already knew. Um, but for people who still get really concerned about the stations in Hyrux, like yeah, you have to get through the stations, but this race is really about the run. And so looking at our particular breakdown, like we spent 50 minutes, about 50 minutes running and 28 minutes in the stations, and like the extra time was you know, like during the transitions and stuff, uh, going through the rock zone. And so that means roughly two-thirds of the race was running, and so it's like you know, I talk about the stations, I talk about what could have, you know, like how we can go a little bit faster or not, but like the biggest time difference is gonna be improving on running. Um, and it'll be me improving on running because there were times where like it seemed like Diony wanted to go faster, and I'm like, I'm gonna stay at this pace. And um, she did tell me though, like she felt like she wanted to go faster, but she was also glad when I was like, I want to stay here. So um, but like I mentioned, she's definitely a stronger runner than I am. So to improve our time for next time, the biggest opportunities are gonna be improving our run pace, aka me improving my run, my natural run pace, um, cleaning up the transitions, because yeah, I feel I really feel like that was our downfall during the lunges. Um, and it could have made our wall balls faster too. So, I mean, we don't need it's just I think the wall balls is more of an ego thing since I'm a crossfitter um to go faster on the wall balls, and then and then the sled pole, like we did we definitely did lose quite a bit of time there um in the sled pool, but um but the biggest thing the biggest differentiator is definitely going to be the run. So my comfortable running pace right now is about like 10 to 10 and a half minutes per mile. If I'm tired, then yeah, it goes to like 11 minutes, but um, especially with my racing shoes compared to my training shoes, like in my racing shoes, I consistently will get like 10 a 10-minute mile uh mile pace, maybe nine and a half minute mile, but you know, also considering the stations and the fatigue from that. And so if I can improve it to be nine and a half minutes per mile, so just I don't know, off the top of my head, like on a normal run in my racing shoes, like maybe a nine-minute um mile pace, so that if I'm tired, then it's like nine and a half like averages out to nine and a half minutes per mile. I feel like that would make a huge difference on our time. Um, so yeah, I the race was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. I mean, I knew I would have fun in it with it, um, until I think it was more when I realized it was more of a running race that I got a little bit more worried. And then, but um, but despite that, like I still had fun. And um, it gives me another reason to work on my running um besides triathlon. Because for triathlon, the run is at the end, so it's just kind of like at that point, like you kind of or at least for me, like I kind of hope for a specific like run pace and to finish like for the sprint like in the 5k in a certain amount of time, but at that point is just like survival mode because you're tired. Um and but like doing high rocks races kind of gives me another like reason to work on my running. Um, but like you know, I'm not going to focus on high rocks year round. Um, I mean, I guess I don't focus on triathlon year round, but I definitely like I'll prioritize CrossFit during like my quote unquote off season, and then um in the months up uh leading up to like a triathlon, I'll I'll like switch over and do more of the triathlon stuff, so swim, bike, run, and a little bit less uh CrossFit classes. Um I feel like for high rocks, because I'm already doing CrossFit and I'm already doing endurance stuff with triathlon, high rocks is just kind of something that for me slots in pretty well and tests like a little bit of strength, mostly run um endurance uh performance. Um and we'll once we get up to or leading up to our next race, um Deonia and I will practice a little bit more, but I feel like I don't necessarily need to change the way that I'm training currently in order to get better at high rocks. Um, because I'm already running and wanting to improve my running. So um, but yeah, this was fun. Deonia and I were already like, let's do Anaheim, and so they released the dates. So we're most like like 99% sure we're gonna sign up for um the the race in Anaheim in December and then probably do uh Vegas again um since we live here uh next year. And so I didn't want to say it on this podcast, but I'm already thinking like hopefully we get like 115. That would be really awesome, but even like under 120 would be would be pretty good, I think. So we'll we shall see if we achieve that, but um, but yeah, this was a fun race. Hope you found this interesting and um yeah, I'll see you in the next conversation.